THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE 


OF 

THE INDIAN MUTINY 

AS SET FORTH IK THE OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 


BY GEO. CRAWSHAY, ESQ. 

MAYOR OF GATESHEAD. 

A LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE MECHANICS’ INSTITUTION, GATESHEAD, ON 
WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 4th, 1857. 


“ Lord Canning Las shown throughout the greatest courage, the greatest 
ability, and the greatest resources .”—Lord Palmerston at the Mansion 
House , November 8th. 


LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 








THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE 


OF 

THE INDIAN MUTINY 

AS SET FORTH IN THE 

OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 


BY GEO. CRAWSHAY, ESQ. 

MAYOR OF GATESHEAD. 

A LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE MECHANICS’ INSTITUTION, GATESHEAD, ON 
WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 4th, 1857. 


“Lord Canning has shown throughout the greatest courage, the greatest 
ability, and the greatest resources .”—Lord Palmerston at the Mansion 
House , November 8th. 


LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 





Newcastle-upon-Tyne: 

Printed at the Journal Office, Grey Street, 
by Andrew Carr. 




44 In general the English have paid very great attention 
to the jurisprudence and civil legislation of India, as the funda¬ 
mental principle of their Indian government is to rule that country 
according to its own laws, customs, and privileges ; while, on the 
contrary, the other European powers that once had obtained a firm 
footing in India, formed alliances with, and attached themselves by 
preference to, the Mahometan sovereigns of the country. By this 
simple but enlightened principle in their Indian policy and ad¬ 
ministration, the English have obtained the ascendency over all 
their rivals or opponents, and have become complete masters of the 
whole of this splendid region.”— Frederick von Schlegel. Lec¬ 
tures on the Philosophy of History , 1828. 


. 

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‘till rc> ■; ;Iavt • '• ■■ - ' 1 ' ■ ' ■ - 

mti} n h-w? ! • bul ooi. if A), r*a$ o ■ .®S - : > 

V- 1 lus&ritffi • ■ tin ■ l K ::i i.t:i -S 

■ ' • ■ ljq 






LECTURE 


Mr. J. B. Prockter having been called to the chair, 
in the course of a brief address, said that they could not hut 
respect the Mayor for the trouble he took in obtaining and 
giving information on matters of public importance, and the 
interest he took in the affairs of this rising country. 

The Mayor of Gateshead.—Ladies and gentlemen, my 
friend, Mr. Prockter, has been kind enough to say that he 
gave me credit for taking an interest in the affairs of this 
rising country. I am afraid that the interest which I take 
arises from the painful feeling that possibly this is a falling 
country. The mutiny of the Bengal army is a great danger 
in itself; but, in my opinion, it is a less danger than that 
arising from the ignorance of the people of England as to its 
causes. I have made it my duty to inquire into those causes, 
and my object to-night is to explain what they are. I have 
found no difficulty whatever in ascertaining them. I have 
only had to make reference to certain official documents which 
were laid before the House of Commons in July of this year; 
the information contained in which is so clear, that I hold it 
to be impossible for two men to look one another in the face, 
after reading thorn, and so much as express a doubt as to 
what has been the cause of these disasters. You have 
heard probably something about greased cartridges. What I 
shall state to you to-night will show that, whatever other 
causes of disaffection there may be in India, there are no 
sound reasons for the belief that this mutiny would have oc¬ 
curred, unless there had existed in the mind of the 
Hindoo a panic or belief that his religion was to be inter¬ 
fered with, and that this was to be done by means of the 
greased cartridge. That you may understand the case, 
it is necessary, before I commence an examination of 
the official documents, that I should say a few words as to 
the nature of ciste, and what is meant by losing caste in 

B 


2 


India. This is indeed very necessary, as it is often 
spoken of at present in the most flippant and care¬ 
less manner. It is gravely alleged, as a chief fault of the 
East India Company, that they have made it a rule of govern¬ 
ment to respect the religion of the Hindoos ; and people talk 
of abolishing caste, as if it were the simplest matter in the 
world ! We in England talk of losing it; but that is a 
misuse of words by which we are misled as to what 
losing caste means in India. When we use the ex¬ 
pression, we only mean that a man falls from a higher to 
a lower station ; consequently we apply the phrase to the 
country whence we got it in the same trivial sense. Caste 
is not even a Hindoo word, but a Portuguese word, signify¬ 
ing race. Losing caste in India is equivalent to excom¬ 
munication in a Roman Catholic country, or rather to what 
excommunication was in the old days of the Roman Catholic 
Church, when it carried with it the penalties of contempt 
and persecution in this world, and damnation in the next. 
The division into castes is not confined to India, but existed 
among other ancient nations; and a Hindoo, when he 
commits an act by which he loses caste, does not fall 
from a higher caste to a lower,—he does not, from a Brahmin, 
become a Sudra, but is shut out from all fellowship with 
any Hindoo. A man who loses his caste loses his home ; 
his family and friends cannot speak or sit with him. He be¬ 
comes a most miserable being during his life on this earth, 
and in his own belief is condemned to perdition in the 
next. This dreadful penalty falls upon the Hindoo in 
consequence of offences equivalent to the mortal sins of the 
Roman Catholic Church. Many offences may be committed 
not entailing this penalty; but there are some for which no 
forgiveness can be hoped. Of these some are moral, and 
some ceremonial observances. In this respect the Hin¬ 
doos are like the Jews of old. There are some few obser¬ 
vances of a ceremonial character, the violation of which 
stands upon the same level in the minds of the people 
as moral sins. Amongst these the most prominent 
are the prohibitions as to food. The eating of any¬ 
thing forbidden is defilement. The cow is the sacred 
animal of the Hindoos,—the pig is alike unclean to 
Hindoos and Mussulmen. Grease of cows and pigs, 
strikes at both, and for the Hindoo to put such sub¬ 
stance to his lips is to commit one of the mortal sins ; 
any Hindoo will rather suffer death than submit to it; 
and an order to do so is one which could no more be obeyed 


3 


by a Hindoo than could be an order to a Roman Catholic 
regiment to feed their horses with the holy water. I 
will not allow this to rest upon my word, I will put in evi¬ 
dence : the whole hinges upon this. Col. Sykes, the first 
witness whom I shall call, was the Chairman of the East 
India Company last year. He has spent the greatest 
part of his life in India ; there is no authority higher than 
his. In a letter to the Times , dated October 8th, Colonel 
Sykes, after showing that the Sepoys are willing to make 
many concessions, proceeds to explain that there are 
points which they cannot concede, and to attempt to 
exact which must bring about such results as we have 
seen. He states — 

“After the perusal of the above memorandum it will very 
naturally be asked what more could be desired or expected from native 
soldiers, and what possible cause or causes can there be to drive such 
men into mutiny —into the vengeful massacre of their European 
officers—into an utter recklessness with respect to their immediate and 
future personal interests, involving the loss of employment and the 
loss of provision in old age, of their liberal pensions from Government 
—and into exposing themselves to the risk of a direful retributive 
vengeance. There must, then, be some fatal, imperative, and irresisti¬ 
ble obligation to produce such results. Sir, any one but a sciolist in 
the knowledge of Asiatic beliefs, customs, and usages, replies that 
external bodily defilement is removed by ablutions and oblations, but 
that a breach of certain alimentary laws, ipso facto, consigns the 
offender to excommunication and degradation, than which death is 
preferable, for his parents, his brothers, and his friends, can neither 
eat nor smoke with him, nor let him drink out of their water vessels. 
He is become an out-caste. He is condemned to contempt in this 
w r orld, and his soul is damned m the next. Now, it is very lamentable 
that in this age of reason such stern obligations should be accepted by 
human beings, and be operative ; but they exist,—there they are as 
great facts. So it is lamentable that hostile religions should exist; 
but there they are, and always have been—great facts which produced 
the conflicts of the Homoousians and the Homoiousians in our early 
church, Bartholomew’s Eve, De Montford’s bloody doings at Carcas- 
sone, Anabaptist atrocities at Munster, our Smithfield fires, Irish 
massacres, and, even in those days, threatened bloodshed at Belfast. 
Nor are alimentary laws of modem origin. We find that the Egyp¬ 
tians could not eat with the sons of Jacob because “ that was an abo¬ 
mination to the Egyptians;” the Jews equally were debarred by their 
usages from eating with the Gentiles, as is attested by St. Peter’s 
vision of the sheet full of animals, and the command, “ Rise, kill, and 
eat,” and St. Peter’s reply of “ Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten 
anything that is common or unclean.” Acts x, 11—15, and at verse 
28, St. Peter adds, “Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a 
man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another 
nation.” With such precedents in our own Sacred Volume, we can 
the more readily understand the food obligations of the Hindoos, 
which, however, have, no doubt, increased in stringency with the 
growth of Brahminical influence since the Christian era.” 


4 


If you read the Bible you will find that, in the case 
of the animals taken in the ark by Noah, there was 
a distinction made between clean and unclean; that in 
Deuteronomy, some are mentioned as to be eaten, and 
others as not to be eaten; and that, in the case of the new 
converts to Christianity, as recorded in the Acts of the 
Apostles, they were commanded to refrain from partaking 
of things strangled and from blood. 

Col. Sykes continues :— 

“ But, whether more or less stringent, if we take the Hindoos as 
our servants, subject to their religious obligations, as just and hu¬ 
mane masters we are bound to respect these obligations. The Maho- 
medans, also, are equally subject to a food interdict, in the case of 
swine’s flesh ; and Brigadier John Jacob knows full well, that if he 
were to order his Mahomedan soldiery (though they may venerate 
him) to bite a cartridge greased with pig’s fat, or his high-caste troopers 
to bite a cartridge greased with cow’s fat, that both the one and the 
other would promptly refuse obedience, and, in case he endeavoured 
to enforce it , they would shoot him, down” 

Again Col. Sykes says :— 

“ Let us suppose such an order to have been given at Meerut, or 
anywhere else, to native troops, and the consequences were inevitable. 
Missionary labours would have had nothing to do with producing the 
bloody results ; though Christianity itself had not existed they would 
have followed, and a Buddhist, a Pagan, or any other authority would 
equally have been resisted to the death. Irrational and absurd as 
these caste obligations are, even felons in the gaols die to maintain 
them, and their active resistance to the recently introduced messing 
system in the gaols of Bengal and the North West Provinces has 
occasioned bloodshed. We have read in a recent Madras newspaper 
that some convicts who where embarked for transportation to the east¬ 
ward refused the ship’s food given to them, and, as they were dying 
of starvation, it became necessary to disembark them. How are we 
to deal with such tenacions obduracy? We cannot kill the fanatics, 
and we can only, therefore, lament the fanaticism and tolerate it. It 
is little known or thought of in the western world to what privations 
and sufferings the high-caste Sepoy is subjected in embarking for 
foreign service. From the moment he sets foot on board a ship he 
cannot cook ; he cannot receive the ship’s provisions, and his support 
is confined to parched grain and fcondimen's which he takes with him. 
In the great expeditions to Java, China, and the Persian Gulf these 
privations and sufferings were borne cheerfully by thousands of Sepoys 
in our service, and would be borne again and again if their religious 
prejudices were respected. In the present feeling of resentment which 
has been so justly roused by the bloody acts of the Bengal Sepoys, 
and the generally expressed want of confidence in the future loyalty 
of the Brahmin and Rajpoot, it is of vital importance, as we cannot 
do without a native army, that there should be a clear understanding 
not only with respect to the constitution of that army, but that in its 
management we should have constantly in mind what services we can 
and what we cannot exact from them.” 


5 


These religious scruples were in existence in the time 
ofAlexander the Great. They are much older than the 
days of Menu; are so old that nobody knows their origin. 
If you put four or five thousand years down for their anti¬ 
quity, it may not be far from the mark ; and, when we con¬ 
sider that these observances are regarded as of the most 
stringent character, and are of such antiquity, it is easy to 
see that they must have become so fixed in the minds of 
the people as not to be easily removed. Nor is there any 
reason why they should be, since it does not hurt anybody 
else, if a man wishes to abstain from certain kinds of food. 

There has been published a letter from a Highlander 
of the 78 th Regiment, in India, which had been out one 
night burning villages. The story he tells is painful to read, 
and I wish to enter to-night into no details of atrocities 
either on one side or the other. I merely tell you that he 
went amongst the flames, and succeeded in rescuing a few 
poor people, who would otherwise have perished in them. 
He rescued a female, an old man, and a child or two. He 
then says:— 

“ I went in at the other end of the village and came across a woman 
about twenty-two years old. She was sitting over a man that, to all 
appearance, would not see the day out. She was wetting his lips with 
some siste. The fire was coming fast, and the others all round were 
in flames. Not far from this I saw four women. I ran up to them, 
and asked them to come and help the sick man and woman out, but 
they thought they had enough to do, and so they had, poor things; 
but, to save the woman and the dying man, I drew my bayonet, and 
told them if they did not I would kill them. They came, carried 
them out, and laid them under a tree. I left them. To look on, any 
one would have said that the flames were in the clouds. When I 
went to the other side of the village there were about one hundred 
and forty women and about sixty children, all crying and lamenting 
what had been done. The old woman of that small family I took out 
came, and I thought she would have kissed the ground I stood on. I 
offered them some biscuit I had for my day’s rations ; but they would 
not take it; it would break their caste , they said. The ‘assemble* 
sounded, and back I went, with as many blessings as they could pour 
out on anything nearest their heart.*' 

These poor perishing creatures, naked and faint, would 
not take the food offered to them, when “ it would break 
their caste !” This will be new to you, but these things are 
not unknown to any man connected with India. The East 
India Company always understood this, and this has been 
the one thing by which they have been enabled to maintain 
their power. India never could have been acquired at all 
if it had not been a settled point that the feelings of the 


6 


people were to be scrupulously respected. This you will 
find has been acknowledged by the English Parliament, 
which has always laid it down that the Hindoo laws and 
customs were to be maintained. An act of George III. 
laid this down. The Indian articles of war provide that 
there shall be no interference with the religious scruples of 
the Sepoys. I have not been able to obtain a copy of them ; 
but I find this in the Blue Book:— 

“ The Articles of War clearly state that any person acting 
against the religious feelings of any man in a regiment of the army is 
liable to the severest punishment.”— Blue Book , page 294. 

Consequently, it forms part of the contract with the 
Sepoy that his feelings in these matters shall be respected. 

You will hear me mention Dum Dum and Barrack" 
pore, which are close to Calcutta. I shall mention Berham" 
pore, which is 100 miles up the Ganges from Calcutta. Six 
hundred miles up the Ganges is Lucknow, and 300 miles 
further up, or 900 miles from Calcutta, is Delhi, with 
Meerut only a few miles off. These are the places I shall 
mention, and I beg you to bear in mind that they lie all in 
one line up the Ganges from Calcutta. As early as January 
22nd of this year, there was a wide suspicion at Dum Dum 
and Barrackpore, that the new cartridge made at the Calcutta 
arsenal for the Enfield rifle was greased with the fat of pigs 
and cows, and that this was done for the purpose of defiling 
the Hindoo, depriving him of his caste, and compelling him 
to be a Christian :— 

u Lieut. Wright to Ensign Smith, Adjutant, Rifle Depot, Dum Dum. 

“ Dum Dum, January 22, 1857. 

“Sir, — I have the honor to report for the information of Major 
Bontein, commanding the depot, that there appears to be a very un¬ 
pleasant feeling existing among the native soldiers who are here for 
instruction, regarding the grease used in preparing the cartridges, some 
evil-disposed person having spread a report that it consists of a mix¬ 
ture of the fat of pigs and cows. 

“ 2. The belief in this report has been strengthened by the beha¬ 
viour of a classie attached to the magazine, who, I am told, asked a 
Sepoy of the 2nd Grenadiers to supply him with water from his lota. 
The Sepoy refused, observing, he was not aware of what caste the man 
was ; the classie immediately rejoined, ‘ You will soon lose your caste , 
as ere long you will have to bite cartridges covered with the fat of pigs 
and cows,’ or words to that effect. 

“ 3. Some of the depot-men in conversing with me on the subject 
last night, said that the report had spread throughout India , and 
when they go to their homes their friends will refuse to eat with 
them . I assured them ( [believing it to be the case,) that the grease 
used is composed of mutton fat and wax, to which they replied, ‘ It 
may be so, but our friends will not believe it: let us obtain the in- 


7 


gredients from the bazaar, and make it up ourselves ; we shall then 
know what is used, and be able to assure our fellow-soldiers and 
others that there is nothing in it prohibited by our caste/ 

“ In conclusion, I most respectfully beg to represent that by 
adopting the measure suggested by the men, the possibility of any mis¬ 
understanding regarding the religious prejudices of the natives in 
general will be prevented.—I have, &c., 

“ J. A. WRIGHT, Lieutenant and Brevet Captain, 
70th Regiment, Native Infantry.” 

\_Blue Book, page 2/] 

The question arises, was there any foundation for this 
suspicion ? The Blue Book tells us there was, that the sus¬ 
picions were right, and that the cartridges had been greased 
in this manner in the arsenal at Calcutta. I must beg you 
to be patient with me to-night, because this is necessarily a 
long story. (Applause.) In the course of a court martial 
connected with the mutiny in the earlier stages, Lieut. 
Curry, of the Ordnance, on the trial of Salikram Sing, 
March 23rd, is recalled and examined :— 

' “ By the Prosecutor.—You stated in your evidence on Saturday, 

that before the 27th January, cartridges were issued to the Delhi ma¬ 
gazine from the Arsenal already greased ; what are the orders you have 
received on the composition of grease for the use of cartridges \— 
A . The grease was to be made of six parts of tallow and one of bees¬ 
wax. 

“ Q. Of what ought that tallow to consist of?— A. No inquiry 
is made as to the Jat of what animal is used. 

“ Q. You do not yourself know what fat is used ?— A. No, I 
don’t know. 

“ Q. Is it not the intention of Government that the tallow to be 
used in the preparation of grease, should be mutton or goat’s fat ?— 
A. It is now the intention of Government that all grease used in any 
preparations in the magazine is to be made of goats’ and sheep fat 
only.”— Blue Book , page 223. 

The officers in the Ordnance Department at Calcutta 
cannot deny the statement that the fat of kine and swine 
had been used. Evidence to the same fact is given as to 
the ammunition sent from London, and there are further 
passages to the same effect in the Blue Books. It will not 
be disputed. 

The alarm existed on the 22nd of January, and caused 
such discontent amongst the Sepoys that already there had 
been some isolated cases of incendiarism. The Government 
made no admission as to the cartridges ; on the contrary, 
it is asserted that the report was false ; even to the last no 
admission of error was ever made :— 

“ Colonel Wheeler, commanding the 34th Native Infantry, as¬ 
sured them the rumour so industriously circulated was false, and the na- 


8 


tive officers and men said they were satisfied it was so. But one native 
officer respectfully asked if any orders had been received regarding the 
Enfield rifle cartridges.”— Despatch of Generali Hearsey , Blue Boole , 
page 9. 

What they did was to issue an order, which I will read 
to you :— 

“ The Secretary to the Government of India to the Adjutant-General of 
the Army. 

(Telegraphic.) “ Calcutta, January 27 } 1857. 

“In order to remove the objection the Sepoys may raise to the 
grease used for the cartridges of the rifle-muskets, all cartridges are to 
be issued free from grease, and the Sepoys are to be allowed to apply, 
with their own hands, whatever mixture suited for the purpose they 
may prefer. 

“ You are requested to communicate to the parties concerned, and 
to inform the officef in charge of the Depot of Instruction at Meerut, 
where the cartridges are prepared. 

[ Blue Book, page 5.] “ R. J. H. BIRCH, Colonel.” 

This was on January 27th ; but, on January 28th 
another order was issued which confined the operation of it 
to rifle practice. It is stated :— 

“ This arrangement, however, is to be considered applicable only 
to the depots of rifle practice, the question of the state in which cart¬ 
ridges are to be issued under other circumstances, and especially for 
service in the field, being under the consideration of Government.”— 
Blue Book , page 5. 

On the following day, the 29th, a telegraphic com¬ 
munication was received by the Adjutant-General of the 
army at Meerut from the Secretary to the Government 
at Calcutta, by which the order was altogether abolished 
so far as Meerut was concerned. The Secretary to the 
Government had received a message from the Adjutant- 
General in which he said his men had had no suspicions 
hitherto, but that the issuing of a new regulation might 
make them so; and he asked for fresh orders, in reply 
to which he was told that the “ existing practice m 
“ greasing cartridges for rifles may be continued/' * * So 
that the point of the Sepoys satisfying themselves as to the 
mixture was put on one side. You must recollect that it 
was impossible to tell by the taste at any time what the 
substance was with which the cartridge was greased. 


* “ The Adjutant-General of the Army, Meerut , to the Secretary to the 

• Government of India. 

“ (Telegraphic.) 

“ Received your message of yesterday. Greased rifle ammunition has 
been used some years by native troops, to w wm Minie rifles were issued 
on the Peshawur frontier; also by Rifle Companies (see paragraph 21, 



9 


It was a matter of belief, a suspicion in their minds, 
that constituted the danger. They had been told by 
the Hindoos working in the arsenal at Calcutta, that 
the cartridges had been so greased, and the thing for the 
Government to do was to deal with their minds so as to 
remove the suspicion. In a letter to the Times , Major- 
General Tucker actually says :— 

“ If the recommendation addressed by me, under the authority 
of the then Commander-in-Chief to the Government of India in 1853, 
had not been most culpably disregarded, the existing disaffection 
among the native troops would never have arisen—not, at least, as 
connected with the greasing of cartridges ; for in that year, when some 
rifle ammunition was sent out to India from this country, and certain 
experiments in connexion with it were ordered, occasion was taken in 
my office urgently to recommend to the Government, that, “ in the 
greasing composition nothing should he used which could possibly offend 
the caste or religious prejudices of the natives /” That recommendation 
was addressed under my signature as Adjutant-General to the Military 
Secretary of the Government; it must obviously have been entirely 
disregarded.” 

He adds :— 

“ I do not presume to say with whom specifically the blame of 
this most culpable neglect may rest,—only investigation can settle that 
point; but I conceive that either the Military Secretary or the officer 
presiding in chief over the Ordnance Department in Calcutta is, one 
or both, the party implicated. As far as I can learn with accuracy at 
this distance, the ferment existing arose, first, from the glaring error of 
greasing cartridges in the Calcutta arsenal, after the English receipt , 
with tallow ; and, secondly, in issuing to the native troops, similarly 
greased cartridges, sent out direct from England , hut which ought , of 
course, only to have been issued to the European troops. It appears truly 
wonderful that it should not have occurred to any of the authorities 
in Calcutta, charged with the issuing of these cartridges, that tallow 
made of the fat of all kinds of animals, a filthy composition at the best, 
would seriously outrage the feelings and prejudices of all the native 
troops, whether Moslems or Hindoos. My humble opinion is, that the 


section 2, Military Regulations). Grease composed of mutton fat and 
wax. Will not your present instructions make the Sepoys suspicious about 
what hitherto they have not hesitated to handle ? Fresh orders are solicited in 
reply.” 

“ The Secretary to the Government of India to the Adjutant-General of the 
Army, Meerut. 

“ (Telegraphic.) “ Calcutta, January 29, 1857. 

“ In reply to your message of the 28th, the existing practice in greasing 
cartridges for rifles may he continued, if the materials are mutton fat and wax. 
Further orders will be given, and explanations will follow by post .”—Blue 
Boole, page 13. 

Note. —These clearly indicate that on January 30th the suspicion 
as to the cartridges had not reached Meerut. 

C 



10 


Government of India should have insisted on learning with whom 
rested the blame of the grave errors committed. And the facts of the 
case having been ascertained, a frank explanation should have been 
issued for the information of the native troops. By such a course the 
European officers would have been armed with a truthful and candid 
explanation ; whereas now, in fact, the officers themselves do not in 
general know exactly how or in wliat manner the greasing process 
originated.” 

This course of the Government bore its legitimate fruit: 
suspicion was not removed but strengthened. 

On February 3rd the new cartridges were shewn to 
the men, and they objected to the paper :— 

Captain Boswell to the Major of Brigade. 

“ Barrackpore, February 4, 1857. 

“ Sir, —I have the honor to report that in obedience to instruc¬ 
tions contained in a note of yesterday’s date, from the Brigadier com¬ 
manding the station to the address of officers commanding regiments at 
the station, I yesterday afternoon at a parade of the wing under my 
command, had fully explained to the men of the wing that the car¬ 
tridges for the new rifles were to be made up exactly like the five 
produced on parade, and of the same paper as that sent with the car¬ 
tridges, and that the Sepoys would dip the cartridges themselves in 
wax and oil before using them. 

“ I took the cartridges into the ranks, and showed them to the 
men (having one broken open) ; and upon my asking several of the 
men, here and there in the ranks, if they could see anything objec¬ 
tionable in them, and their reply, made in the most civil but soldier¬ 
like manner, was that the paper was not the same as that used for the 
old cartridges, and that they thought there was something in it. 

“ I deem it my duty to report this circumstance for the informa¬ 
tion of the Brigadier Commanding, as I imagine there will be no diffi¬ 
culty in substituting the old cartridge paper for that made use of in 
the construction ofthe new cartridges. 

I have, &c. 

“ N. C. BOSWELL, Captain Commanding Left 
Wing 2nd Grenadiers.” 

[ Blue Book , page 14.] 

An inquiry was made on the 6th, the result of which 
was communicated on the 8th to the government at Calcutta 
'by Major-General Hearsey :— 

“ Major-General Hearsey to the Deputy Adjutant General ofthe 

Army. 

“ Barrackpore, February 7, 1857. 

“ Sir, —With reference to my official letter to your address, 
dated the 24th ultimo, I have now the honor to forward, for submis¬ 
sion to the Government, the proceedings of a special Court of Inquiry 
which has been assembled at Barrackpore, for the purpose of ascer¬ 
taining from the evidence of a selected portion of the 2nd Native Grena¬ 
dier Regiment the cause of their continued objection to the paper of 
which the new rifle cartridges are composed. 


11 


“ 2. A perusal of the several statements and opinions recorded 
in these proceedings clearly establishes, in my judgment, that a most 
unreasonable and unfounded suspicion has unfortunately taken posses¬ 
sion of the minds of all the native officers and Sepoys at this station, 
that grease or fat is used in the composition of this cartridge paper; 
and this foolish idea is now so rooted in them, that it would, I am of 
opinion, be both idle and unwise even to attempt its removal. 

“ 3. I would accordingly beg leave to recommend for the consi¬ 
deration of Government, the expediency (if practicable) of ordering this 
rifle ammunition to be made up of the same description of paper which 
has been hitherto employed in the magazines for the preparation of 
the common musket cartridge, by which means this groundless sus¬ 
picion and objection could be at once disposed of. 

j have &c. 

“ J. B. HEARSEY 5 , Major-General, Com¬ 
manding Presidency Division. 

[Blue Book , page 13.] 

The paper was of a yellow colour, glazed, and had the 
appearance of being greased, and Maior-General Hearsey, as 
a sensible officer, who did not wish to offend the soldier on a 
matter of no consequence, recommended a change of paper, 
with a view to remove suspicion. I cannot read all the evi¬ 
dence that was taken on this inquiry, but give some, 
passages:— 

“ Byjonath Pan die. Sepoy, 5th Company, 2nd Grenadier Regi¬ 
ment, appears in Court, and voluntary states as follows :— 

“ Q. Were you on parade on the evening of the 4th instant, when 
the new cartridges were shown to the men of the regiment ?— A. I was. 

“ Q. Did you make any objection to the materials of which those 
cartridges were composed?—A. I felt some suspicion in regard to the 
paper , if it might not affect my caste. 

“ Q' What reason have you to suppose that there is anything in 
the paper which would injure your caste?— A. Because it is a new 
description of paper of which the cartridges are made up, and which I 
have not seen before. 

<• q. Have you ever seen, or heard from any one, that the paper 
is composed of anything which is objectionable to your caste ? A. I 
heard a report that there was some fat in the paper ; it was a bazaar 
report. 

“ Q. Are these the cartridges and paper which you examined on 
parade (the paper and cartridges shown to the witness) ? A. Yes. 

“ Chaud Khan, Sepoy, 7th Company, 2nd Grenadier Regiment, 
voluntarily states as follows :— 

« Q, £) 0 y 0 n object to the paper of which the new cartridges were 
made, now lying before the Court; and if so, on what grounds ? A. 
I have no objection to the bullet x*>wder ; it is only the paper which 
I have doubts about, which appears to be tough, and on burning it it 
smells as if there was grease in it. . ' 

t* Q' Were you present when a piece of the paper -was burnt, 
and when ? _ A. On the evening of the 4th instant a piece of the cart¬ 

ridge paper was dipped in water and afterwards burnt. When burn¬ 
ing it made a phizzing noise, and smelt as if there was grease in it. 


12 


“ Q. Who were present when this burning of the paper took 
place ?— A. Two or three were present. I do not recollect what their 
names are. [A piece of the cartridge paper is burnt in Court by the 
witness.] 

“ Q. Are you still of opinion that there is any smell of grease in 
it?— A. No ; there is not. 

“ Q. Have you now any objection to use these cartridges with 
paper of that description?— A. I object to this paper being used, as 
every one is dissatisfied with it on account of it being glazed, shining 
like wax-cloth.” 

“Jemadar Buddor Sing, 6th Company, 2nd Grenadier Regiment, 
is called into Court:— 

“ Q. Have you any objection to the new cartridge which lies 
before the Couft?— A. Nothing except the paper, which I have some 
suspicion about , as I have never seen anything of the kind before ; and 
the general report is that there is grease in it” 

“ Jemadar Gunness Sing, No. 10 Company, 2nd Grenadier Re¬ 
giment being called into Court:— 

“ Q. Have you any objection to the cartridge which lies on the 
table ?— A. I have no objection to the cartridge myself, but there is a 
report amongst the men that there is grease in it. 

“ Q. How did this report get abroad 2— A. I do not know. 

“ Q. What, in your opinion, would be the best plan to undeceive 
the minds of the men on this point 2— A. I know no other way than to 
substitute other paper in its place” 

“ Jemadar Golaul Khan, 2nd Company, 2nd Grenadier Regi¬ 
ment, is called into Court:— 

“ Q. Have you any objectian to the use of the cartridges now 
lying before you ?— A . I have objection to the paper , as there is a 
report got about that there is grease in it. 

“ Q. Can you prove yourself that there is grease in it, or have 
you taken any measures to do so?— A. There is grease in it, I feel 
assured , as it differs from the paper which has heretofore been always 
used for cartridges” 

“ Jemadar Ram Sing, 9th Company, 2nd Grenadier Regi¬ 
ment :— 

“ Q. Have you any objection to the use of the cartridges now 
lying before you ?— A. A report got about, which, I think, came from 
the Magazine Classies in Calcutta, that there was some grease in the 
paper ; on this account I have some suspicions about it. 

“ Q. How can this suspicion be removed from your mind 2— A. 
I cannot remove it.” 

“Jemadar Wuzeer Khan, 7th Company, 2nd Grenadier Regi¬ 
ment, called into Court:— 

“ Q. Have you any objection to the use of the cartridges lying 
upon the table!— A. I have no objection to it—it appears to be 
new. 

“ Q. Would you have any objection to use it in the way the old 
cartridges are used 2— A. I should have some objection, in consequence 
of the suspicion which exists generally in the cantonment.” 

“ Havildar Major Ajoodiah Sing, 8th Company, 2nd Grenadier 
Regiment, called into Court:— 

“ Q. Have you auy objection to the use of the cartridges lying 
on the table 2— A. I have suspicions about the paper, on account of 
the bazaar report that there is grease in it. 


13 


“ Q. Have you taken any measures to prove whether this report 
is true?— A. I have tried it in oil, and also in water, and where it was 
wet with the oil it would not dissolve. After this trial I thought 
there was no grease in it. 

“ Q. By the experiment, in your opinion, there was no grease in 
the paper ; would you object to bite off the end of the cartridge?— A. 
I could not do it , as the other men would object to it” 

“Bheekun Khan, Haviidar, 10th Company, 2nd Grenadier 
Regiment, called into Court: — 

“ Q. Have you any objection to the use of the cartridges lying 
on the table?— A. I suspect that there is cow’s and pig’s grease in 
them, from a bazaar report. 

“ Q. If you had any doubt, why did you not ascertain the point 
from your officer?— A. I could not report it to the officer, it being 
merely a bazaar report. 

“ Q. When the paper and cartridge was shown you upon 
parade, had you any reason to suppose that there was any grease 
mixed with the paper ?— A. I have heard that it smells of grease when 
it is burnt.”— Blue Book , pages 15 to 18. 

Well, the project of changing the paper was declared 
at Calcutta to be inconvenient, because the paper objected to 
was thinner, and answered better; but, in the middle of the 
discussion as to what should be done, Major-General Hearsey 
writes to them in a despatch of February 11th, that at 
Barrackpore “we are dwelling upon a mine ready for 
explosion/' and complaining that he had received no answer 
to his recommendation of the 8th that the paper should 
be changed. Lieutenant-Colonel Hogge, Director of the 
Military School of Instruction, writes from Meerut on 
the 21st February, making the very opportune suggestion 
that the biting of the cartridge should be altogether 
abolished. In the course of his despatch he says :— 

« As Colonel Abbott states as an objection to the use of mutton 
fat, that it might be difficult to persuade the native soldiers that no 
other animal fat was used, I can only suggest that either the cart¬ 
ridges should be issued from magazines ungreased, and that the 
Quartermaster or officers commanding companies in native regiments 
should purchase the material themselves, through a joint agency of a 
Brahmin or a Mussulman, which would convince the other men that 
the fat used was not from either cow or pig, and further, that instead 
of the end of the cartridge being bitten off as laid down in drill instruc¬ 
tions , the men should be told to twist it off with the right hand , the 
cartridge being shifted to the left hand for this purpose, whilst the 
rifle is supported against the body by the left wrist: this latter plan 
would remove all objeciions from that class of Hindoos who never 
touch animal food.” 

On March 5th, the biting of the cartridge is abolished. 
After this, you will wonder that suspicion could still 
exist, but after I have told you more you will cease 


14 


to wonder at anything. The biting of the cartridge 
was necessary when the old flint and steel firelock 
was in use; but, since the substitution of the percussion 
musket for the old firelock, cartridge biting had been 
unnecessary. Major Bontein, at Dum Dum, on March 2nd, 
writes to the Government:— 

“ Permit me to quote the regulation as it now stands:— 

“ ‘ The firelock being at the word 4 prepare to load ’ placed on 
the ground six inches in front of the body, and held at the full extent 
of the left arm, the recruit receives the order 4 load upon which the 
regulation says, first bring the cartridge to the mouth, holding it 4 be¬ 
tween the forefinger and thumb, with the ball in the hand, and bite 
off the top, elbow close to the body.” 

44 The above regulation is at present in force, but I would sub¬ 
mit that the practice of biting the cartridge is a mere remnant of the 
platoon exercise introduced in the days of the flint and steel firelock, 
when the musket being brought to the right side with the left hand, 
for the purpose of priming, it was almost impossible to use the cart¬ 
ridge without the aid of the teeth.” 

He further says 

44 I would suggest that, at the third motion of the order, 4 pre¬ 
pare to load,’ the left hand, instead of holding the musket at the full 
extent of the arm, should, after placing it on the ground in front of 
the body, slip up and seize the rifle at the brass band, or tip to the 
stock ; it will then be in a position to meet the right hand, which con¬ 
veys the cartridge from the pouch, to tear off the cartridge-paper in 
place of using the teeth, and (at the fourth motion of the word ‘ load,* 
when the right hand seizes the head of the ramrod) to return to the 
centre part of the stock, ready to throw up the firelock into the ‘cap¬ 
ping position * at the sixth command of the platoon exercise. The 
above suggestion I offer with every deference to the judgment of 
superior experience, I do not , in the least , intend to consult the caprice 
of the native soldier; my motive is an increase of efficiency” 

Mark the concluding passage, that the substitution of 
tearing for biting the cartridge would be an increase of 
efficiency. Major Bontein dared not offer his suggestion 
to Lord Canning on the ground of sparing the religious 
feelings of the Sepoys . The Government at Calcutta 
could not resist Lieut-Colonel Hogge and Major Bontein, 
and issued this order:— 

44 This mode the Governor-General in Council is disposed to 
think will be an improvement, and should his Excellency concur, his 
Lordship in Council requests that early instructions maybe given to the 
several depots of instructions, not making any allusion whatever to the 
biting of the cartridge , but drawn up in such a way that they may ap¬ 
pear to be independent of anything laid down in previous regula¬ 
tions . 

44 The Governor-General in Council considers that it would be 
best to make the alteration before any objection is raised, and, there¬ 
fore, requests his Excellency’s early attention to the subject. 


15 


t( Instructions have been issued confidentially to the depot of 
instruction at Dum Dum, to defer the use of ammunition pending the 
reference to his Excellency.—I am, &c. 

“R. J. H. BIRCH, Colonel.” 

[Blue Book, page 35.] 

Major-General Hearsey, writing on the same day, the 
5th March, to the Government, says :— 

“ The new mode of loading may be considered as a part of the 
intended drill for a new weapon about to be introduced into the service, 
and not as a concession extorted by discontented men” 

He adds :— 

66 We shall thus be keeping our word with the Sepoys, and, at the 
same time introducing a better plan of loading with reference to their 
religious scruples.” 

This order of the 5th of March was concealed from 
the Sepoys. The order was not acted upon. 

I have gone in point of date, beyond other events of 
very great consequence. On the 26th February, occurred 
the mutiny of the 19th Regiment at Berhampore, and upon 
the conduct of Government at this juncture everything 
depended. The men at Berhampore were only 100 miles 
further up the Ganges, and the alarm which commenced at 
Barrackpore had spread there. The inquiry held on the 
6th, at Barrackpore, clearly showed that the Sepoys ob¬ 
jected to cartridges of a certain paper and colour. The 
mutiny occurred at Berhampore, on the 26th, upon this 
very point. Here I must read you a document of 
some length, viz. the, petition of the 19 th Regiment 
for mercy, first giving you the Governor-Generars ad¬ 
mission that they had stated the facts correctly. He 
says:— 

“ Upon the whole, the petition contains a fair account of what 
took place on the occasion of the outbreak, the main points being 
borne out by the evidence at the Court of Inquiry .”—Minute of the 
Governor-General in Council of March 27 th, page 50, Blue Book. 

“Petition to the Major-General Commanding the Division, inclosed 
by Colonel Mitchell. 

<( (Translation.) “ March 2nd. 

“ Hitherto this regiment has been always obedient in every way, 
and marched and halted wherever ordered, without question of any 
sort. For the last two months or more it has been rumoured that 
new cartridges have been made in the magazine at Calcutta, on the 
paper of which bullock’s or pig’s fat was spread, and that it was the. 
intention of Government to coerce the men to bite them. On this 
account we were very much afraid on the score of our religion. The 
Colonel on hearing this assembled the native officers, and told them 
that on the arrival of the new muskets he would make such arrange- 


16 


ments as would satisfy them ; that is to say, that such grease as was 
necessary should be prepared before the Sepoys by the Pay Havildars 
of companies ; with this we were perfectly satisfied. After some time 
some fresh stores arrived from Calcutta, and on the 26th of this month 
we reeceivd orders on the following day to fire fifteen rounds of blank 
cartridge per man ; at 4 o’clock in the afternoon the cartridges were 
received at the bells of arms and inspected by us ; we perceived them 
to be of two kinds, and one sort appeared to be different from that 
formerly served out. Hence we doubted whether these might not be 
the cartridges which had arrived from Calcutta, as we had made none 
ourselves, and were convinced that they were greased. On this account, 
and through religious scruples, we refused to take the caps.” 

Bear in mind, that if the men had a design and 
wanted to fight they would not have refused to take the 
caps. It goes on :— 

“At half-past 7 o’clock, the Colonel, accompanied by the Adju- 
jutant, came upon parade, and very angrily gave orders to us, saying, ‘ If 
you will not take the cartridges I will take you to Burmah where 
through hardship you will all die. These cartridges are those left be¬ 
hind by the 7th Native Infantry, and I will serve them out to-morrow 
morning by the hands of the officers commanding companies’. He 
gave this order so angrily that we were convinced that the cartridges 
were greased, otherwise he would not have spoken so. The same 
night, about a quarter to 11, shouts of various kinds were heard, some 
said there’s a fire, others that they were surrounded by Europeans, 
some said that the guns had arrived, others that the cavalry had ap¬ 
peared. In the midst of this row the alarm sounded on a drum, then 
from fear of our lives the greater number seized their arms from the 
khotes.” 

Colonel Mitchell had previously sent an order for 
horses and artillery to be there in the morning with a view 
of coercing the men, who were to be made to bite the 
cartridge. The men heard of this, and flew to arms. The 
narrative proceeds :— 

“Between 12 and 1 o’clock the 11th Irregular Cavalry, and the 
guns with torches, arrived on the parade with the commanding officer, 
which still more confirmed our suspicions of the cartridges being 
greased, inasmuch as the commanding officer appeared to be about to 
carry his threat into execution by force. We had been hearing of this 
sort of thing for the last two months or more , and here appeared to 
be the realization of it. On this the Colonel called all the Native 
officers, and said to them very angrily, 4 This is a very bad business ; 
we don’t fear to die and will die here.’ Then the Native officers, in 
the most respectful manner, represented to him, the Sepoys are fools, 
whereas you have sense and judgment; do not at this time speak so 
angrily, for this is a matter affecting their religion, and that is no 
slight thing. Please^ to send the artillery and cavalry away. The 
Colonel agreed to this and sent each officer with his Native officer to 
his company to soothe and explain to the men. The Sepoys repre¬ 
sented that all men value their religion , and we believe we shall lose 
caste by biting the cartridges; and on seeing the artillery and cavalry 


17 


we became more frightend ; their officers then said to the men, we will 
ask the Colonel to send away the cavalry and guns, which was accor¬ 
dingly done. At the same time, however, the Colonel said I will have 
a general parade in the morning, then I will have the Governor-Gene¬ 
ral’s orders read out. On this the Native officers again represented to him 
that only a short portion of thenight remained, and if he had the cavalry 
and guns there so soon again, the men would only believe that they 
were intended to act against them. It would be better if he only 
paraded the regiment alone ; at first he would not agree to this, but 
on its again being represented to him by the Adjutant he agreed to it. 
The men then lodged their arms and went to their lines. They all 
appeared on parade on the following morning. On the 28th, again 
according to orders, there was another parade, at which the cartridges, 
which the men had refused to fire, were inspected, when assuredly 
two kinds of cartridges were found, one kind of white thin paper, and 
the other darker and thicker. On burning and submerging the two 
the difference still was evident, which did not remove the distrust. 
The Colonel put up specimens of each kind of paper and has sent them 
to you. From that time onwards all duties have been properly car¬ 
ried on, and so shall be; as long as we live we will faithfully obey all 
orders ; wherever in the field of battle we are ordered to go, there shall 
we be found ; therefore, with every respect, we now petition, that 
since this is a religious question from which arose our dread, and as 
religion is by the order of God the first thing, we petition, that as we 
have done formerly, we may be also allowed to make up our own 
cartridges, and we will obey whatever orders may be given to us, and 
we will ever pray for you. 

“ The petition of the Native Commissioned and Non-commis¬ 
sioned Officers and Sepoys of the 19th Native Infantry .”—Blue Book, 
page 264. 

These men had never at any time before had any 
cartridges except those made with their own hands. For 
the first time, in the midst of all these rumours about greased 
cartridges, they have ready made cartridges handed to them of 
entirely novel appearance. When seized with panic, Colonel 
Mitchell threatens them: in terror for their religion and their 
lives, they take up arms to defend themselves. It is true that 
afterwards Col. Mitchell did all in his power to undo the 
harm he had done. The same night he does appear to have 
tranquillized the men, sent away the guns and cavalry, the 
men laying down their arms, and abandoned his purpose of 
insisting on their using the cartridges. In consequence 
order was restored, and, the matter left to the Colonel, the 
danger was over. But there was a Governor-General and 
Council at Calcutta : after hearing the case, the Governor- 
General decided that:— 

“ Mutiny so open and defiant cannot be excused by any sensi¬ 
tiveness of religion or caste, by fear of coercion, or by seductions and 
deceptions of others. Accordingly it has been resolved by the Gover¬ 
nor-General in Council that the 19th Regiment shall be disbanded 
immediately .”—Minute of March 27, Blue Book , page 51. 

D 


18 


In this critical month of March, they had laid before 
them, at Calcutta, a recommendation of the utmost impor¬ 
tance, that biting the cartridges should be dispensed with : 
a few days before they had learnt of the outbreak at 
Berhampore. Government could not refuse to abolish the 
biting of the cartridges, yet could not allow the order 
not to bite them to be read at the head of every regi¬ 
ment, and at the same time disband the 19th Regiment. 
What they did do was to keep secret the concession, 
and publicly to disband. The disbanded Sepoy is reduced 
to beggary and starvation. The news spread all through 
India. The order disbanding them was read at the head of 
every regiment. The Sepoys heard nothing at all about 
the not-biting, but all of the biting of the cartridge, and, 
consequently, a panic spread that the Government was 
determined to make them, at all costs, bite the cartridges, 
or disband them, as it had done the 19th. (Applause.) 
The 19th Regiment was removed to Barrackpore, to be dis¬ 
banded in the face of all the regiments that could be gathered 
from far and near. But, two days before the 19 th got there, 
a mutiny of the 34th Regiment had broken out at Barrack- 
pore, because the 19th was to be disbanded. The 34th 
was the regiment which > Lieutenant-Col. Wheeler was en¬ 
deavouring to convert to Christianity. You may imagine the 
effect of a Protestant Colonel denouncing the Roman 
Catholic religion to a Roman Catholic regiment. Two 
days before the disbandment of the 19th, Mungul Pandy, 
a man hitherto of good character, appeared in a state of 
religious frenzy before the lines, shooting at every one near 
till he was arrested. He was tried and hung, of course. 
The man was in no plot, but simply excited by the fear of 
the greased cartridges. There was a general indisposition 
on the part of the men to arrest him, and the consequence 
was that another man was tried and hung for not arresting 
him. An inquiry was ordered into the state of the regi¬ 
ment, and the result was an order condemning the Colonel 
and disbanding the regiment. 

It has been said that the mutiny was the result of a 
“ Mahommedan conspiracy." That , if it were so, would 
not alter the facts just stated ; but the Blue Book proves 
the contrary. The question for us to consider is what 
drove the men to do what they did ? All the officers of 
the 34th Regiment examined testify that they would trust 
the Sihks and Mahommedans of the regiment: their evi¬ 
dence is thus summed up at the conclusion of the inquiry : 


19 


“ April 17th. 

“ The Court, upon the additional evidence before them, adhere 
to their former opinion, viz. :— 

“ ‘ That the Sikhs and Mussulmans of the 34th Regiment Native 
Infantry are trustworthy soldiers of the State, but that the Hindoos 
generally of that corps are not trustworthy.’ 

“ C. GRANT, Brigadier, President. 

“E. AMSINCK, Brevet Colonel, Member. 

“ C. S. REID, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel, Member. 
“H. W.MATTHEWS, Major, Member. 

“ W. A. COOKE, Major, Member. 

“GEO. N. GREENE, Captain, 

Conducting the Proceedings. 

“J. B. HEARSEY, Major-General, 

\_Blue Book , page 148.] Commanding Presidency Division. 

On May the 4th, Lord Canning issued a general 
order disbanding the 34th Regiment. Now I told you be¬ 
fore that the order abolishing the biting of the cartridge 
had not been read to the regiments, but that the general 
order disbanding the 19th Regiment had been read at the 
head of every regiment. In the same way, Lord Canning 
directed that the order of May 4th disbanding the 34th 
should be read at the head of every regiment. But I can¬ 
not say that did any harm, because by the time it could 
have been read there were no regiments to read it to. On 
May 4th, the very date on which the 34th was ordered to 
be disbanded, and the order of disbandment ordered to be 
read to every regiment of the service, at that very date, a 
letter was written from Lucknow with the news of a mutiny 
there. All this time, ever since the disbandment of the 
19th Regiment at the end of March, the disbanded Sepoys 
had been on the road, and by this time the panic as to the 
cartridges, which in January had been confined to the 
neighbourhood of Calcutta, had spread from one end to the 
other of the Bengal Presidency. At Lucknow, on May 4th, 
the following despatch was written :— 

“ The Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Oude to the Secretary 
to the Government of India. 

“ Sir, —I am directed to report, for the information of the 
Governor-General in Council, that on the 2nd instant the 7th Oude 
Regiment, stationed seven miles from the Lucknow Cantonments, 
refused to bite the cartridge when ordered by its own officers, and 
again by the Brigadier. It was ordered to parade on the 4th. On the 
3rd several symptoms of disaffection appeared. At 4 p.m. the Brigadier 
reported it in a very mutinous state. Instantly, a field battery, a wing 
of Her Majesty’s 32nd, one of the 43th and 7lst Native Infantry, and 
of the 7th Cavalry, the 2nd Oude Cavalry and 4th Oude Infantry, 
marched against it. The regiment was found perfectly quiet ; formed 
line from column at the order, and expressed contrition. But when 


20 


the men saw guns drawn up against them, half their body broke and 
fled, throwing down their arms. The Cavalry pursued and brought up 
some of them. The arms were collected and brought away, and the 
Regulars were withdrawn. The disarmed 7th were directed to return 
to their lines, and recall the runaways. They were informed by Sir 
Henry Lawrence, that Government would be asked to disband the 
corps ; but that those found guiltless might be re-enlisted.” 

I have, &c., 

“ GEORGE COUPER.” 

[Blue Book , page 209.] 

On the 5th March the biting had been abolished ! Can 
anything go beyond that ? The men of Oude two months 
after the date of that order are ordered “ to bite/' and there¬ 
upon Lord Canning says, in his Minute of May 10th :— 

“ This despatch from the Chief Commissioner in Oude reports 
the outbreak of a mutinous spirit in the 7th Regiment of Oude Ir¬ 
regular Infantry and their refusal to use the cartridge furnished to 
them.” 

It was no unconscious man who altered the minute 
word of the despatch “ bite" unto the word of similar dimen¬ 
sions “ use." He continues :— 

I see no reason in the tardy contrition of the regiment for 
hesitating to confirm the punishment of all who are guilty. I would, 
therefore, support the Chief Commissioner at once. I think it better, 
however, that the disbandment, to whatever length it may be carried, 
should be real.” 

How mark the concluding paragraph :— 

“ It appears that the revised instructions for the platoon exer¬ 
cise, by which the biting of the cartridge is dispensed with, had not 
come into operation at Lucknow, when the event took place. Expla¬ 
nation of this should be asked.”— Blue Book , page 210. 

Not one word is there in this book in answer. 

Mr. Dorin, Member of Council, says :— 

“ The biting of the cartridge can only have been an excuse for 
mutiny, since I presume it is certain that no new rifles or greased car¬ 
tridges have been served out to this local corps.” 

Major-General Low says :— 

“ I cannot say with much precision all that ought, in my opinion 
to be done by orders of the Government, especially as it appears to 
me, that probably the main body of this regiment, in refusing to bite 
the cartridges, did so refuse, not from any feeling of disloyalty or 
disaffection towards the Government or their officers, but from an 
unfeigned and sincere dread, owing to their belief in the late rumours 
about the construction of those cartridges, that the act of biting them 
would involve a serious injury to their caste and to their future respec¬ 
tability of character. In short , that if they were to bite these car¬ 
tridges they would be guilty of a heinous sin in a religious point of 
view.”—Blue Book , page 211. 


21 


Major-General Low, admitting that the men refused to 
bite the cartridges because they would be guilty of a heinous 
sin, would punish them for refusing! 

Mr. Grant, in his minute, says :— 

“I agree with my honourable colleague, General Low, in 
thinking it probable that the main body of these men may have 
refused to bite the cartridges, not from any feeling of disaffection, but 
from an unfeigned dread of losing caste, engendered by the stories 
regarding cartridges, which have been running like wildfire through 
the country lately. Sepoys are, in many respects, very much like 
children, and acts which, on the part of European soldiers, would be 
proof of the blackest disloyalty, may have a different significance, 
when done by these credulous and inconsiderate, but generally not 
ill-disposed beings. These men, taken from the late Oude army, can 
have learned as yet little of the vigour of British discipline ; and, 
although there can be no doubt that the cartridges which they refused 
to bite were not the new cartridges for the Enfield musket, which, by 
reason of the very culpable conduct of the Ordnance Department, have 
caused all this excitement ; yet it may be presumed, that they were 
the first cartridges that these men were ever required to bite in their 
lives. Also, there is no saying what extreme mismanagement there 
may have been on the part of the Commandant and Officers in the origin 
of the affair ; the mere fact of making cartridge-biting a point after it 
had been purposely dropped from the authorized system of drill, merely 
for rifle practice, is a presumption for any imaginable degree of perverse 
management”—Blue Book, page 212. 

Nevertheless Mr. Grant condemns the Sepoy to dis¬ 
bandment ! Whilst these events were occurring in Oude, 
the like was taking place at Meerut. In the first instance, 
seventeen recruits at Meerut were dismissed the service 
for refusing to use the cartridge, and complaints were sent 
from head-quarters to Meerut that those men had not been 
sufficiently punished :— 

“ Docket of a Letter dated May 6th, 1857, from the Adjutant-General 

of the Army to the Secretary to the Government of India. 

“ To prevent vague and exaggerated accounts of the mutinous 
conduct of some of the troops at Meerut, intimates that eighty-five 
out of the ninety men of the 3rd Light Cavalry armed with carbines 
having refused to receive the cartridges tendered to them, the Com- 
mander-in-Chief has ordered the trial of the whole of them by general 
court-martial, and a squad of artillery recruits (seventeen in number) 
having also refused they were at once summarily dismissed by the 
officer commanding the artillery at the station, a punishment which the 
Commander-in-Chief considers to be incommensurate to the ofence, and 
his Excellency has caused the authorities concerned to be informed that 
the recruits should have been instantly placed in confinement in view to 
their trial by court-martial.”—Blue Book, page 175. 

What happened in a few days ? Ninety of the troops 
there were ordered to use the cartridge; 85 refused! 
They were tried by court martial, and condemned to im- 


22 


prisonment in irons for ten years.* (Cries of “ shame”) 
This was on the 9th of May. On the 10th May the 
rest of the regiment rose in revolt, broke open the gaol, 
liberated their comrades and 1,200 felons besides. From 
that time everything was confusion, and rebellion was 
enacted from Calcutta to Lahore. A gentleman in this room 
wrote these words in the Morning Herald, of 22nd Au¬ 
gust, 1856:— 

“ Once put forth your hand, and touch what the Asiatic con¬ 
siders the ark of his honour, and you will have precisely what Russia 
requires, scenes like those of the Vellore Mutiny , enacted from Calcutta 
to Lahore 

But the story of infatuation is not yet completed. 
I must call your attention to the conduct of the Indian 
Government after the events of Meerut and Delhi. On May 
28th—(recollect the expressions of March 5th with regard to 
the biting of the cartridge, “a mere change of drill, with no 
appearance of concession to discontented men’)—mark now 
the conduct of the Indian Government when the Sepoys had 
risen in revolt. On May 28th, a circular is issued recounting 


* “ I have (observes Col. Sykes) no hesitation in saying, from my 
personal knowledge of the classes of men constituting the Bengal army, 
that a similar and equally sudden revolt might have occurred at any time 
in the last hundred years had the same dangerous religious chord been 
touched by rough and imprudent hands, as has been done recently, and this, 
too, although there had not been a missionary in India. It will be observed 
from the Parliamentary papers that the first uneasy feeling about the greased 
cartridges was manifested in January ; regiments mutinied and were disbanded 
in March and April, and without indications of combined hostile feelings 
against their European officers; and it was not until the 10th of May at Meerut, 
after the 85 troopers had been condemned en masse to ten years’ imprisonment 
in irons, with hard labour, as felons, for refusing to use suspected cartridges, 
that the Sepoys, for the first time in a hundred years, in combination, lifted their 
hands in exasperation against their officers to massacre them. The shock of 
the punishment was electric throughout 80,000 men; each Sepoy made the 
trooper s’ case his own—it was resistance or supposed degradation, and, from 
that moment, a Bengal Sepoy was not to be trusted. * * * I must protest 

against the doctrine that a Sepoy army is not to be trusted for the future. Only 
respect their religious prejudices and keep faith with them, and you ensure 
fidelity. It is physically impossible that our small islands with their population 
of 28 millions can afford a perennial supply of troops to keep in subjection 181 
millions of people, dispersed over an area of 1,466,576 square miles. * * 

It is attributed to the Sepoys that they are using the greased cartridges 
against us, and consequently their objection to them is a subterfuge. The fact 
is, they have neither the Enfield rifle nor the greased cartridges, but are using 
* Brown Bess’ and the usual musket ammunition. Lastly, the public should 
know that the original phases of the military revolt have passed away, and that 
we have now to contend with a Mahommedan conspiracy, ramifying throughout 
India, and that the Sepoys are merely tools in the hands of our ancient and 
implacable enemies.” 




23 


what the Government had done to quiet the minds of the 
Sepoys, when the following information is for the first time 
given :— 

“ An alteration teas also made (in March) in the platoon exercise 
by which the ends of the cartridges were no longer to be placed in the 
mouth” 

The circular ends thus :— 

“ The above information is furnished for the use of officers in 
command of stations, regiments, or detachments, and they are hereby 
ordered to circulate it, and make it understood amongst all under their 
command, officers and men, without delay. 

“ Every means is to be taken to do this effectually and imme¬ 
diately, both formally on parade, and privately in the quarters of 
every corps. And commanding officers are hereby directed to spare 
no pains to make their men, each Sepoy individually, fully aware of its 
contents.” 

There is no talk now of avoiding the appearance of 
concession to discontented men. A singular fact is revealed 
in this circular :— 

“ From communications lately received by the Government, it 
seems that misapprehension regarding the cartridges is not confined 
to the Native troops. Some officers appear to believe that cartridges of 
the new kind, or made of unusual materials, have been issued to the 
army.” 

The circular adds :— 

« This is quite erroneous. No cartridges for the new musket> 
and no cartridge made of a new kind of paper, have at any time been 
issued to any regiment of the army , nor is it the intention of Govern¬ 
ment that any should be issued.”— Blue Book , page 340. 

After this let me read to you a document of the fatal 
date of May 4th :— 

“ The Adjutant-General of the Army , to the Secretary to the Govern¬ 
ment of India. 

“ Head-Quarters, Simla, May 4, 1857. 

“Sir, —Referring to previous correspondence regarding the 
target practice of the Native detachments at the several rifle depots, 
the Commander-in-Chief considers it will be satisfactory to the Right 
Honorable the Governor-General in Council to learn that at all three 
depots the practice has been commenced, and that the men of all 
grades have unhesitatingly and cheerfully used the new cartridges.” 

Now for the distinction between “The Army” and 
“ Any Regiment of the Army.” 

«In communicating this information to his Lordship, I am to 
beg you will be good enough to add that a confidential circular has 
been addressed to officers commanding regiments, enjoining upon them 
to take every precaution in their power to prevent the depot men 9 
upon their rejoining their corps , being subjected to any taunting or 


24 


ill-usage from their comrades with reference to their having used the 
Enfield rifie cartridges at the depots . 

“I have, &c. 

“C. CHESTER, Colonel.” 

[Blue Book , page 270.] 

On May 14th, ten days after, proceeds the following 
from the same quarter :— 

“ Adjutant General’s Office, Head Quarters, 
Simla, May 14, 1857. 

“ Sir, —The Commander-in-Chief desires that all firing for drill 
or target practice purposes shall he suspended until further orders. 

“ It is to be thoroughly explained to the men, that the sole 
object of this order is to soothe their minds, now so excited, and also 
to remove the possibility of their being supposed by their comrades 
at other stations, or by the people at their homes, to be using any 
objectionable cartridges. 

“ I have, &c. 

“ C. CHESTER, Colonel, 

[Blue Book , page 44.] “ Adj utant-General of the Army.” 

On May 19th, the cartridge is withdrawn altogether, 
whether greased or ungreased, torn or bitten :— 

General Orders by the Commander-in-Chief. 

“ Head Quarters, Umballah, May 19,1857. 

“ The Commander-in-Chief on the 14th of May issued an order, 
informing the Native army that it had never been the intention of the 
Government to force them to use any cartridges which could be ob¬ 
jected to; that they never would be, either now or hereafter. His 
object in publishing that order was to allay the excitement which has 
been raised in their minds, although he felt there was no real cause for 
it. He hopes that this may have been the case ; but he still perceives 
that the very name of greased cartridges causes agitation , and he has been 
informed that some of those Sepoys who entertain the strongest attach¬ 
ment and loyalty to the Government, and are ready at any moment to 
obey his orders, would still be under the apprehension that their family 
would not believe that they were not in some way or other contami¬ 
nated by its use. The rifle introduced into the British army is an im¬ 
provement upon the old musket, and much more effective; but it 
would not be of the same advantage in the hands of the Native army 
if it was to be used with reluctance. Notwithstanding, therefore, that 
the Government have affirmed that the cartridges are perfectly harm¬ 
less, he is satisfied that they would not desire to persist in the use of 
them if the feelings of the Sepoys can be thereby calmed. His Excel¬ 
lency therefore has determined that the new cartridges shall be dis¬ 
continued. He announces this to the Native army, in the full confi¬ 
dence that all will now perform their duty free from anxiety and care, 
and be prepared to stand and shed the last drop of their blood, as they 
have formerly done, by the side of the British troops, and in defence 
of their country.”— Blue Book, page 357. 

The last thing I have to lay before yon is an attempt 
vainly made by the Lieut.-Govemor of the North-Western 
Provinces to save India. Agra, the capital, is between 


25 


Delhi and Lucknow, and the very centre of the disturbed 
district. Mr, Colvin, the Lieutenant-Governor, was one of 
the most eminent and excellent men of the Indian civil 
service. Since the event I am about to detail he is 
dead. For good men, in such stations and in such times, 
there is a peculiar malady—a broken heart:— 

“The Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces to the Go¬ 
vernor-General of India in Council. 

“ (Telegraphic.) “ Agra, May 24. 7 p.m. 

“ On the mode of dealing with the mutineers, I would stre¬ 
nuously oppose general severity towards all. Such a course would, as 
we are unanimously convinced by a knowledge of the feeling of the 
people, acquired amongst them from a variety of sources, estrange the 
remainder of the army. Hope, I am firmly convinced, should be held 
out to all those who were not ringleaders or actively concerned in mur¬ 
der and violence. Many are in the rebels’ ranks because they could 
not get away ; many certainly thought we were tricking them out of 
their caste ; and this opinion is held, however unwisely, by the mass of 
the population, and even by some of the more intelligent classes. Never 
was delusion more wide or deep. Many of the best soldiers in the army, 
amongst others of its most faithful section, the Irregular Cavalry, show 
a marked reluctance to engage in a war against men whom they believe 
to have been misled on the point of religious honor. A tone of general 
menace would, I am persuaded, be wrong. The Commander-in-Chief 
should, in my view, be authorized to act upon the above line of policy ; 
and when means of escape are thus open to those who can be admitted 
to mercy, the remnant will he considered obstinate traitors even by 
their own countrymen , who will have no hesitation in aiding aqainst 
them. I request the earliest answer to this message. The subject is 
of vital and pressing importance.”— Blue Book , page 331. 

On May 25th he issued the following proclamation:— 

“ Soldiers engaged in the late disturbances who are desirous of 
going to their own homes, and who give up their arms at the nearest 
Government civil or military post, and retire quietly, shall be per¬ 
mitted to do so unmolested. 

“ Many faithful soldiers have been driven into resistance to Go¬ 
vernment only because they were in the ranks and could not escape 
from them, and because they really thought their feelings of religion 
and honor injured by the measures of Government. This feeling was 
wholly a mistake, but it acted on men’s minds. A proclamation of 
the Governor-General now issued is perfectly explicit and will remove 
all doubts on these points. Every evil-minded instigator in the dis¬ 
turbance, and those guilty of heinous crimes against private persons, 
shall be punished. Ail those who appear in arms against the Govern- 
men, alter this notification is known, shall be treated as open enemies.” 
—Blue Book , page 332. 

This proclamation was immediately disavowed by Lord 
Canning, and Mr. Colvin's anticipations realized. 

I have to thank you for the attention which you have 
given to these weary details. I dared not have stated that 
the mutiny of the Bengal army had been caused by these 
cartridges, unless I adduced the evidence. Is it not astonish¬ 
ing that you should come here in the month of Novem 

E 


26 


ber to hear these facts from me ? In the month of July 
all this was laid before Parliament. I have only given yon 
a portion of the evidence; every part of it is to the same 
effect. It stares at you from every page of these volumes 
—the cartridge, the cartridge, the cartridge/’ the cry of 
the dying Sepoy !* There are 650 members in the House 
of Commons ; there is a House of Lords, and a Press, the 
instructor of the country. Mr. Disraeli assured the House 
of Commons the rise and fall of empires was not an affair of 
greased cartridges—drawing men's minds away from the con¬ 
templation of the truth in the outset. The Duke of Cambridge, 
at Sheffield, the other day said that “ 70,000 men had mu¬ 
tinied nobody knew why /' Lord Shaftesbury more recently 
has said, these men had no wrong to complain of, and put for¬ 
ward none. You have read the report of the public meeting in 
Newcastle, as well as of the speeches of the members of par¬ 
liament there, and of statesmen from end to end of the king¬ 
dom, and yet not a word of the case, as set forth in 
the official documents, have they acquainted you with.*f* 
I do not say that there are not other causes of dis¬ 
affection in India. There are other grievances which 
have turned men's minds against us ; but this mutiny 
we would not have had but for the greased cartridges. 
{Applause). Is it not dreadful to think that a large portion 
of the world should be plunged into bloodshed, misery, and 
ruin from such a cause ? Can “ perverse management" equal 
this in any page of the history of the world ? I know 
of none like it ! To think that the carrying out of a 
point of discipline (of no consequence whatever to us) 
should have shaken this empire! I declare that, as an 
Englishman, I am ready to sink into the ground with shame 
when I think of these things. (Applause). But the more 
shame do I feel that my countrymen should be ignorant of 
them. There is a conspiracy to prevent you knowing the truth 
The government has the London Press in its hands, with few 
exceptions. The English people, instead of inquiring them¬ 
selves, trust to it, not suspecting that it may be worked by 
men whose object is to deceive them. Thus it becomes 
possible that these documents may be published and people 
know nothing about them. The Times can publish in one 
column the letter of Colonel Sykes, explaining the thing 
so clearly that there can be no misapprehending it, and in 

* Orders were given to interrogate the wounded at Delhi as to the 
cause of mutiny, the universal answer was iC the cartridge, the cartridge, the 
cartridge.'” It was stated in the Times that the Sepoys killed allof their own 
number who were wounded with the Enfield cartridge. 

+ Colonel Sykes and General Thompson are the only exceptions. 



27 


another column a leading article telling the people that 
the Sepoys had no cause of complaint, knowing perfectly 
well that the anonymous article would be believed, and the 
authenticated statement of Col. Sykes disregarded. (Hear, 
hear). Some time ago, in London, I saw an extraordinary 
machine. It was a talking machine. It had the form of a 
man, and lips that moved. The inventor sat behind a 
screen and played on notes like a piano. The machine 
spoke four languages, and sung songs. It is the type of the 
Englishman of the present day, with the finger of the Times 
behind him, playing on his organs. These things could 
not have been possible but for the cry “ Don't enquire." 
We are told not to enquire till the proper time has come. 
When the “ proper" time does come, all that will be neces¬ 
sary will be to sacrifice the East India Company. The people 
will be made to believe they are discharging their duty by 
abolishing the East India Company. Now, upon that point 
they are as much misled as they are with regard to 
the cause of the mutiny. It would take another lecture 
to go into this folly. Since the institution of the Board of 
Control by Mr. Pitt, the governing power has not been in 
the hands of the East India Company, but of the Board of 
Control, which is simply an alias for Prime Minster. 
The really responsible parties are the Boa^d of Control,— 
in point of fact, the government of England. These men 
having accepted these acts, have become responsible for 
them. I have no hope that anything I can say will 
have any effect on the course of affairs in India. I 
only hope that it may awaken some of you to a sense 
of your duties. For these things there can be no remedy, 
save by the old-fashioned process of impeachment. When 
anything wrong is done, it is always said you must change 
the system. If I found my cashier robbing me, and I were 
to believe the mischief would be remedied by changing the 
system, how long do you think I should be in getting into 
the Gazette ? A man of business dismisses or prosecutes 
a faithless clerk. Why not pursue the same course in the 
affairs of the nation ? Because, being slaves in heart, you 
cannot realize to yourselves that you are the principals, and 
the Prime Minister and Government your servants. You 
bow down before the Minister as the Hindoo bows down 
before Juggernaut. A nation that cannot understand that 
its duty and its safety require that a clear case of delin¬ 
quency on the part of its servants, whether that delinquency 
arises from gross incapacity, wilful neglect, or treachery, 
should be met with retribution on the heads of the offenders, 
has ceased to be a community of men. 


28 


POSTSCRIPT. 


Since delivering this Lecture I have obtained that 
information as to the circumstances of the outbreak at 
Meerut which is not given in the official documents. 

The substance of it is, that the Sepoys were not 
themselves alarmed about the cartridges—but begged 
that the issue cf them might be temporarily deferred, 
on the ground that the intensity of the religious panic, 
prevailing at that time throughout Bengal, would sub¬ 
ject them to contumely, and expose them to the danger 
of loss of caste, in case they were known to have used 
them in any way. It was not attempted to enforce the 
biting at Meerut, as in the case of Lucknow, but the 
perfect truth of the statement of the Sepoys is attested 
by General Anson's own order of May 19th ; “the very 
name of greased cartridges causes agitation." 

The mutiny at Meerut was the direct consequence of 
his order of May 4th, issued with perfect knowledge of 
the existence of that state of things, as will be seen on 
referring back to it. 

General Anson was informed from Meerut, by Com¬ 
pany s officers, that mutiny would probably follow the 
attempt to enforce that order. The men having in vain 
begged for time to be given, to allow agitation to subside, 
refused to receive the cartridges. They were tried by 
court martial, and their petition for delay was put in 
evidence. All who had served above three years were 
condemned to ten years’ imprisonment; all who had 
served less, to five years. The irons were fixed upon 
them at a parade of the troops, three hours being occupied 
by the process, and they were then marched to gaol. 

General Anson, the Commander-in-Chief, was in the 
Royal Army, as was also his subordinate in command at 
Meerut. 








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